In 1854 cholera swept through Soho, wiping out 500 people in 10 days. Nobody knew where the terrifying disease came from - or how to stop it. Many people believed it was carried through the air as a deadly 'miasma'.

But Dr John Snow was convinced that cholera was spread by polluted water. He set about investigating the Soho outbreak like a detective, and soon showed that the deaths centred on the Broad Street water pump. Still the sceptics refused to believe him. But finally the evidence was overwhelming, and Snow's theories were generally accepted, leading to a major leap forward in medical understanding.

A riveting read by an award-winning writer, full of the gruesome realities of life, disease and death in Victorian London.